Lac-Mégantic: What we know, what we don’t

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A train with five locomotives pulling 72 DOT-111 tanker cars full of light crude oil from the Bakken shale play in North Dakota to the Irving Oil refinery in Saint John, N.B., was operated by Montreal Maine & Atlantic Railway.

The train was driven by a one-man crew, engineer Tom Harding, who was based in Farnham.

The train stopped at approximately 11 p.m. Friday, July 5, in nearby Nantes.

Harding finished his shift and left the train unattended, taking a taxi to a hotel in Lac-Mégantic.

Firefighters from Nantes were called at 11:32 p.m. to extinguish a fire in one of the locomotives.

About midnight, that locomotive’s engine was shut down and the fire extinguished.

Firefighters were joined by another employee from the MMA.

The last firefighter on scene left at 12:13 a.m. Saturday, July 6.

After the MMA employee subsequently left, the train was left unattended. It started to roll — on its own — at 12:56 a.m.

The runaway train descended a 1.2-per-cent grade toward Lac-Mégantic, picking up speed as it went.

The train crashed inside the town’s core at 1:14 a.m.

About 47 people are believed to have died in the explosion and fires that followed.

The Sûreté du Québec is treating the epicentre in Lac-Mégantic as the site of a criminal investigation.

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) has about 20 investigators on scene and more working in support at its headquarters and laboratory in Gatineau.

The TSB is still in the first phase of a three-part investigation.

The TSB confirmed that the use of a single crew member on the train is part of the investigation.

The TSB said both the number of handbrakes engaged on the tanker cars and the quality of those handbrakes are crucial to the investigation.

The policies and procedures of MMA for the securement of trains left unattended is also being probed as are Transport Canada’s regulatory framework governing the practice.

On July 19, the TSB flagged two safety concerns from the accident to Transport Canada for further analysis: the regulations for the securement of locomotives left unattended and the regulations for the securement and surveillance of trains carrying dangerous goods left unattended.

The TSB is also conducting tests on the light crude oil that the train was hauling to investigate its chemical composition.

On July 23, Quebec’s Department of Sustainable Development, Environment and Parks says it believes 5.7 million litres of crude oil were released into the soil, water and air after the accident. Among its other findings:

A total of 7.2 million litres of crude oil were on the runaway MMA train

9 tankers, from a total of 72, avoided spilling during the accident

457,500 gallons of oil were recovered from Lac-Mégantic’s city centre

51,200 gallons of oily water removed from the nearby Chaudiere River

150,000 litres of oily water removed from Lac Mégantic.

What is unknown

What caused the train to break away? MMA officials confirmed to The Gazette that air brakes were engaged on all five of the train’s locomotives. But it’s unclear how many of the 72 tanker cars had their handbrakes activated.

Edward Burkhardt, the railway company’s chairman, said July 10 that Harding, the train’s engineer, told the company he had activated 11 handbrakes before leaving the train unattended late Friday. Burkhardt also said that “our general feeling now is that that’s not true.”

Were all the handbrakes in working order? TSB said the handbrakes on the tankers are mechanical and involve a winch system. TSB investigators said their quality can be highly variable.

It’s also unclear whether the securement test was performed, where a train to be left unattended is nudged in order to mimic a strong gust of wind or other external force — to ascertain that it won’t move.

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